Rants on Cycling and on Life:
Photos of people and bicycles that pass in front of my camera

7.23.2006

the tour is over... now back to a rational bedtime...

floyd landis rocksa very exciting tour this yeara very exciting tour with an outcome that pleased meit was a beautiful battleI enjoyed watching it all unfoldnever in my life will I be able to do more than imagine what landis feels like todaynow I can go to bed at a decent timeas even fast forwarding through the commercials on the Tivo there were still many hours late into the night watching cycling

I may not know how landis feels riding in the clouds right nowbut I do have a little insight into a situation that tyler hamilton went through a few years agohamilton's dog had died and he dropped out of the tour or something to that effecthaving my dog die a few weeks agowell, the week that followed I was completely uselesswas unable to perform at workunable to focus on anythingso as much as I may not care for tyler hamiltonI feel bad that I may have ever even thought about joking about his inability to race because of the passing of his dog

I like the thought that this was a cleaner than usual tourbutlets not forget that so many racers in the field got to that point in an unclean mannerthat said...it will be a long time before there is a clean tour

I lived in Sicily, Italy and Spain. I raced criteriums in Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Armenia, Ireland, Switzerland, Flanders. I made money in Flanders, racing the Kermesse races...i was young, didn't tire easily, remained unknown, still am a never-was, so I could never be a has-been......the drug useage I saw was one of the reasons I retired, besides my father dying from a.i.d.s. I couldn;t succomb to the dope, it was offered in phrases like, " good job today Frank, I have a present for you, go see the doctor he will give you your present" I went, anounced i was there to pick up a gift, was told to lay down on the table after stripping ( a normal thing we did) the doctor busied himself then asked me a few personal questions in the form of, what was my program.. I didn;t know what he was asking me, so I reply, " well monday I raced, tuesday I rode 115 miles wednesday, I did speed work...he interupted me and asked sternly "NO! what do you do for strength! Don't be silly with me boy!" I said, mirroring him, : I ride my fucking bike asshole" he said, lay down and prepared a syringe, I asked what it was, he said coldly, " your present..... enjoy it" I said no thanks got up got dressed, he was screaming at me in Italian, I didn't understand him, I left for my flat, called my coach, he asked before I could tell him what happened how I felt after receiving my present, I said, fuck you, you piece of shit.. I don't do drugs, I quit... I was cut from the team, came home raced crits here for Crest briefly then drifted into obscurity racing mountain bikes for Fisher, then Yeti....then retired.......drugs do suck...

About Me

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